ALGIERS, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Algerian Defense Ministry on Monday announced the destruction of the last stockpile of anti-personnel mines in an operation.
Chief of Staff of the People's National Army, Ahmed Gaid Salah, supervised the final stage of the public destruction operation of 5,970 anti-personnel mines which have been retained for training purposes in the province of Djelfa 300 km south of Algiers, Algeria's official APS news agency quoted a statement of the ministry as saying.
General Salah who is also the deputy Defense Minister said Monday that "Algeria has fulfilled its international obligations by destroying the remaining stockpile of anti-personnel mines held by the army in accordance with Ottawa Convention (Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction)."
Algeria ratified the treaty on 17 December 2000. The operation on Monday is the last of a series of destruction launched by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika since 24 November 2004.
Gaid Salah stressed that Algerian people have been suffered by mines for decades which led to the initiation of a firm effort to eliminate mines and clear Algerian territory by removing anti-personnel mines.
He announced that Algerian army has discovered and destructed about 9 million mines and completed the clearance of more than 62 thousand hectares of agricultural and pastoral land since 1963. Most of the mines were planted during the Second World War and the French colonial period.
